WHAT WORKS: A few very original twists on the standard fantasy world. "The Bad Guys Won" has been done before, but rarely with the twist of "and then they became kinda good". I really liked the art, as it had an evocative style, kinda comic-booky, but not in a "kids" way.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The overpowering of the Edges and the construction of the races will limit the utility of this for anyone who might want to pluck from this for another Savage Worlds game. Some of the Call-En powers sure seem like they could be overpowered in comparison to the other Arcane Backgrounds. The editing and proofreading could have been a lot tighter as well, given outright contradictions at points in the book.

CONCLUSION: I like the setting quite a bit, as there's a lot of potential there. However, I think the book could seriously do with a revision bringing it more in line with the Savage Worlds rules in regards to Race creation and the strength of the Edges. I'm not a super big stickler for "game balance", but you are asking for trouble when you obviously set up one option as being mechanically superior to others, and folding the required Edges and Hindrances into racial packages would then allow more flexibility at character creation (and keep one from being an obviously better deal than the others). The Call-En feel a LOT like AD&D2e Psionics to me, which I was actually a huge fan of, and the addition of the aliens and the tech reminds me of Tale of the Comet, which I was also a huge fan of. As I said above, the setting has some great potential, with the powderkeg between the Daeorcs and Yaena, the hostility of the "uncivilized races" and the conflict between The Strangers and Nuclarine...I do suspect that bits like the overpowered Edges won't be a huge issue as they are contained to the setting, but I would still love to see it line up better with Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition.

WHAT WORKS: A very creative martial arts system layered onto Fate, providing some good mechanical depth. Lots of optional rules that you can take or leave as you see fit. Great examples. Very pretty production values. Enough setting to get you going without overly detailing it.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: If one isn't into the setting, then I don't think the rules are enough to sell one on it. I always prefer a random adventure generator.

CONCLUSION: One other thing I didn't mention is the Lifepath Generator, which I have already as a Kickstarter backer. I love Lifepaths, and that's another nice piece to the game, one I would probably use in most games. It is still distinctly Fate while feeling notably different from other Fate games, such as Dresden Files or Agents of SWING, and that's a good thing. I don't remotely regret backing this Kickstarter, thanks to both the turnaround time of the product and the quality of it, and can't wait to see what's coming in the line (well, I know Mass Combat Rules are coming, and that's awesome). In the aftermath of the extremely successful Fate Core Kickstarter, folks have been concerned that there's becoming a D20-like glut of cheap cash-in products, but I really don't believe that's the case here. A lot of care and effort went into the book and it shows. If you like martial arts films and you aren't already deeply locked into Wu Xing or Feng Shui, try Tianxia...it's like Fate kicked you in the mouth.

WHAT WORKS: The book is chock full of examples, within the episode guide and outside of it, making the system easier to understand than, perhaps, any other incarnation of Cortex Plus. They squeezed a LOT of customization options out of the Firefly universe, broadening the scope nicely. The Episode Guide is the best I have ever seen in a licensed RPG, worth reading even if you know the series by heart. The most "traditional" feel a Cortex Plus game has had yet, which should help make it more accessible.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: No real treatment of Reavers, I guess? If the print version doesn't have an index, that's going to be rough in a book this size. I could have went in for a Random Episode Generator.

CONCLUSION: The clearest, most concise version of Cortex Plus yet, with no real complaints on my part. The episode guide is an epic thing of beauty, and I could see someone using this as a "gateway" to Cortex Plus and walking folks "back" to other Cortex Plus games once they grasp the basics off of this. I'll admit, I like Firefly, but the idea of a Firefly campaign doesn't fire me up, until I see just how much they were able to cram into this book. They even managed to squeeze in playing an Alliance Operative! I'm not really sure how much material they have to expand the gaming universe with, but given how tight and complete Smallville and Leverage were (sniff, poor Marvel Heroic, sniff), I don't know if that's a bad thing to create a "basically all in one" Firefly RPG. I give it a pretty high recommendation for gaming in the 'Verse, for sure.

WHAT WORKS: Holy smokes...talk about taking the World Engine and running with it. These guys clearly have a fondness for D&D tropes, because you don't write a 400 page book about emulating D&D tropes in a different game system without having some kind of fondness for it. Again, speaking from experience, the World Engine does work pretty well, so long as you're not afraid to improvise. The bestiary is impressive and covers a LOT of ground (not surprising, given the context of the game). Lots and lots of explanations.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: They may have updated it since then, but the PDF I've got had some clickable bookmarks and page numbers that went back to the first page instead of where they were supposed to go. This is still going to be an exhausting game if you can't improvise well (or your group just doesn't want to play along).

CONCLUSION: This is D&D for folks who don't want to play D&D. If you like the D&D tropes but want something lighter and more free flowing, this is a really good choice. If there's something that isn't quite clicking with the game, some folks made a Dungeon World Beginner's Guide as well that'll help you out. Given my experiences with tremulus, I'm inclined to consider Dungeon World for my group's eventual visit to Ravenloft, though part of me really just wants to go into an open setting and see what happens. It covers a TON of ground...before turning around and giving enough advice and examples for you to tinker with it however you need to in order to fill out the game you want to play. Adding it to the short list of games I want to get to the table sooner, rather than later.

WHAT WORKS: Even if you have no desire to play Shaintar, if you're running a fantasy game in Savage Worlds, there's some heavy duty stuff to strip-mine here. At least a few Edges will make their way into my Savage Midnight game, and maybe even a couple of the Setting Rules. A lot of it feels very familiar, sure, but there's a lot of cool tweaks (like the Korindians having their own martial art), and the ready made excuses to put folks together (like Grayson's Gray Rangers). I would also be doing the book an injustice if I failed to point out that it's gorgeous, with an absolutely amazing cover by Tomasz Tworek. Did I mention there's not a laundry list of "More Powerful Than Your PCs" NPCs to have to explain your way around? Although, they may be coming in the next book for all I know. (See? Told you I'm not in the loop.)

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The Talisman Studios version had a really sweet random adventure generator that used cards that this one lacked. Not that I won't just swipe that from that book, of course...but YOU don't have access to it. In MY copy of the PDF, there were still a lot of "see page XXX" left, which may have been corrected by now (and which will hopefully be corrected by print for sure). The information for the setting itself gets painted in pretty broad strokes, which some folks are going to hate and some folks are going to love. Given that I'm just really getting started with one Savage Worlds fantasy game, I doubt I'll get to actually run Shaintar myself anytime soon.

CONCLUSION: For Pete's Sake, at least get the Player's Guide so you can rip liberally for your own Savage Worlds fantasy games. Then if it looks good enough, there's the full version of the book and the Kickstarter to consider. I love a lot of the tinkering Sean did with the Savage Worlds rules, and I seriously cannot wait to see what happens with Legends Unleashed and how it opens up magic to fit an "epic high fantasy" feel.

WHAT WORKS: The bulk of the information is stat-free, so it is totally usable in just about any fantasy game, not just Labyrinth Lord, with virtually no problem. A great balance of detail and GM interpretation is presented as well. The fact that SNG not only allows, but encourages, other publishers to use the city is cool as well. And oh, dear God...I love random tables. Plus, it's Pay What You Want. Literally no reason not to check it out.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: I am a big fan of the slightly Ravenloft-ish gothic horror vibe to the Small Niche Games adventures, and that vibe is almost completely absent from the Guidebook, which is a little disappointing.

CONCLUSION: As my eyes drift back more and more towards D&D and D&Desque games, The Chronicles of Amherth and the surrounding adventures all look very appealing to me, and The City of Dolmvay would be a pretty great jumping off point for that, as I have no issue going low magic. The random tables are great, and the history has a lot of callbacks to the earlier adventures in the series. It's pretty much recommended for any GM who is running a retroclone or any fantasy RPG on the lower end of the magic/power spectrum, especially since you can set the price (and for those who don't get how that works, you can "buy" it for nothing, then rebuy it for what you think is a fair price). Another great outing from Small Niche Games.

WHAT WORKS: Some very nice art is present, and some of the stock characters really stand out. I like how a lot of the Advantages are handled, namely Headquarters, which tends to be an overly costly, underused element of other systems. One of my pet peeves is supers games that think they are being clever with "pages" and "panels", but Bulletproof Blues avoids that.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Several of the tables are oriented badly for use on a screen (though a physical book or most tablets will handle them fine). Some of the in-jokes and references were groan-worthy (Liefeld Radiation). I don't mind a game set in their own universe, but pretending like actual comics were published when talking about characters and backgrounds is almost as big of a pet peeve to me as the "pages" and "panels" thing. A second edition a year after the first was release is...disconcerting.

CONCLUSION: I kinda get the sense that Bulletproof Blues is cobbled together from pieces of other games, feeling like a strange intersection between Mutants & Masterminds, BASH and ICONS. It's definitely not as lite as ICONS or as crunchy as M&M, but it can't settle on the freewheeling narrative approach that the initiative system preaches vs the point buy and standard RPG advancement of more traditional RPGs. On one hand, I do find the Kickstarter for a second edition already hitting a year after the first hit RPGNow to be disconcerting, but the rules are all released via Creative Commons, so that may alleviate some concerns. The How to Play and How to GM essays are unnecessary and feel like filler, though the sidebars within both sections are very informative. I am of the mind that small press RPGs should probably keep the How to Play short and sweet and genre focused, assuming that they are reaching few brand new players, and GM sections should be geared towards running the specific game, setting and genre. I may sound overly critical here, but I don't think Bulletproof Blues is a bad game...I just think it is geared specifically towards people who have sampled about every other supers RPG and found them lacking. If that's you, you might give it a shot. If you're happy where you're at, I don't think anything here is going to sway you.

Thanks for the the review! You went into detail on what you liked and what you didn't, and we always love those kinds of reviews, because different people like different things -- what you didn't like might be exactly what someone else is looking for, and you may have helped them find it. Or vice versa. Either way, you've helped gamers find what they want to play, and that's a win for everyone. Thanks!
You might be interested to know that our plans for the second edition are aimed toward improving a couple of the things you didn't care for. For example, we will be revising the layout so that the tables are more easily read in both the print and the PDF versions of the game. We are also replacing the How to Play and How to GM chapters with new and (hopefully) more directly useful content.
P.S. If you groaned at Liefeld radiation, you'll probably shudder at Stanlium and Siegelite (two of the strongest substances known -- harder than diamond) and Kirbium, which is practically indestructible! :)
P.P.S. Thanks for mentioning the Kickstarter! At this moment in time, we have passed our first two stretch goals, and are gaining ground on an adventure written by Steve Long!
http://kck.st/1i1ieJ7

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Released by Three Sages Games, Baronica is a campaign front for Dungeon World, which I reviewed recently. Baronica is based on the author's old fantasy campaign, with some details left out. In keeping with the Dungeon World mindset, Baronica is left pretty open for the GMs and players to fill in, maps included. It's a fairly typical fantasy setting, in which the High King has fallen and the people are trying to determine who can take the crown. In the meanwhile, goblins are getting violent, and a dark force is rising to consume everyone (because that's what dark forces DO). A number of important NPCs are provided, as well as questions relevant to the campaign for the players to answer, and Special Moves for certain parts of the setting (my favorite being the move that details what happens when the PCs encounter The Azure Unicorn). Of course, Dangers are present, and a few Fronts are provided to help you guide the escalation of the threat level (such as the Rise of the Dark Lord).

WHAT WORKS: If you read the advice on creating Campaign Fronts and Dangers in the Dungeon World book, and it didn't quite click, then this might well be worth reading. I liked that the maps are left open enough for you to add your own elements and features that appear in gameplay, and I particularly enjoyed the encounter with the Azure Unicorn.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: If you already have a sense of what you are doing with Dungeon World, world-building-wise, then there's not enough new and unique stuff here to make it worthwhile. The author admits that it's going to feel a little familiar to some people, so if you're already on that path, you are probably better served to keep going in that direction.

CONCLUSION: Recommended for people who are pretty sure they have the mechanics of Dungeon World down, but are not sure just how they are actually going to get the game going (the front suggests that the PCs begin in media res), but folks who have already started to work on their own Dungeon World setting aren't going to find a lot here to compel them to scrap their work and introduce Baronica in its stead.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: Murder on the Hellstromme Express is packed in with the Deadlands Reloaded GM screen, but is also available separately in PDF. It is perfectly suitable for use as an introductory adventure, but can also be dropped into any campaign in which the posse has a need to take jobs for money. The adventure is designed to run from Chicago to Dodge City, with the PCs serving as escorts for a Mad Scientist on a train full of 'em, each trying to impress a Hellstromme Industries auditor and earn points for the big Kansas Scientific Symposium. Wackiness ensues as the agendas of the various scientists bubble to the forefront, intersecting with a raid by a vicious Indian War Party. Assuming everyone makes it to the Symposium itself intact, one of the scientists has a final surprise for the posse...and the amount of help they have in that final battle relates directly to how well they managed the personalities on the train.

WHAT WORKS: All of the scientists on the train are interesting and were a blast to play as GM. Having the posse's interaction with them factor into the end game was a great touch. It makes for a good introductory adventure due to the mundane beginnings that help introduce more arcane elements of the setting.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Might not be enough action for some posse members in the early going. When I ran it, I did have one player get very restless waiting on a fight. It is, literally, a railroady adventure, what with most of it taking place on a train.

CONCLUSION: I wouldn't recommend buying the PDF unless you are completely unable to find the GM screen. Buy that and take this as the extra included with it instead. When I ran the adventure, the mad scientists thoroughly exhausted my players, and - as noted above - one of them got really restless with the lack of action, though that was due in part to the posse averting one issue with intimidation, and another through the well timed use of explosives. Definitely recommended if you need an excuse to get your PCs to Dodge City, or if you just want to show off the mad science in the setting.

WHAT WORKS: I'm a fairly psychotically patriotic, idealistic American, so playing or running a game at the dawn of the United States is cool to me, and adding in demons and devils and overwhelming eeeeevil just makes it cooler. I love a magic system with a chance of failure and consequences, which this certainly provides. It also provides utility spells, which are often omitted to the annoyance of many gamers of many games. The Action Points can easily make the game as cinematic as you like, by forcing success assuming you have any stockpiled at all, and you don't roll just miserably.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Not enough random tables. What? I like random tables. Rolling Ability Tests seems like a dicey proposition, as you are rolling 2d12 and trying to get under a single number ranked 1-12. The creation guidelines for monsters and adversaries worries me that the game could get a tad hefty on the book keeping end for GMs. Personally speaking, I would totally have placed the rules after the character creation. Just felt jarring to me.

CONCLUSION: I'd wanted to check this game out for some time, and I was glad to finally get a chance to. Supernatural action/horror in the time of the American Revolution ranks up there pretty highly on my list of "likes", right behind supernatural action/horror in the American West. Having not read the 1st edition, I can't tell you if it's worth buying if you already own that one, but for a first exposure to the game, I really enjoyed the subject matter and the presentation (aside from my quibbles with the organization). I'm slightly apprehensive about how the 12° system plays (specifically on Ability Tests), but the game has been around for quite a while and is in it's second edition without having that changed, apparently, so I'm willing to assume that the issue is bigger in my head. I would definitely like working this into my game table's rotation to find out for sure.

WHAT WORKS: EPOCH boasts a very interesting mechanic, akin to many semicooperative board games. You are trying to survive, yeah (and someone is probably going to die), but it's all for naught if you fail to rack up enough points to beat the Horror Track. The freeform roleplaying is more likely to appeal to non-gamers or casual gamers. There is a great amount of support available for the game, and the price point for the book is low, making the purchase of the card deck not seem like such a big extra expense.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Your average roleplayer may be thrown by the game lacking even a trait system, much less stats or ability scores. In some groups, a dominant personality could overrun the game, and the Hero/Zero mechanic could breed some resentment with the wrong players, especially if they feel picked on for not getting enough votes, or being targeted with Zero cards.

CONCLUSION: Definitely not the normal fare for RPGs, EPOCH is a very different take on horror roleplaying, putting the onus very much on the Player-As-Character. That said, the Outcome and Hero/Zero mechanics ensure that the game never comes down to "I win, because I said I do". With the right group who doesn't take anything too personal, it seems like a great game to play in between breaks from other games, though groups with more tense dynamics could run into problems. It could be really great for a convention game, as the lack of personal connections among the group seem like it could actually help, rather than hinder, in this game. I hope to bring this to my table very soon, but from reading, it seems like it could be a great deal if fun if your group isn't afraid of breaking the mold a bit.

WHAT WORKS: A really good selection, covering the bulk of the remaining official monsters.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The same limitations of being designed for a print product hinder the PDF of this as well. Running Night Train and want a legion of Nosferatu? Get ready to print page 1 - including trade dress that covers a quarter of the page, as well as a bunch of creatures you don't have an immediate use for - over and over again. You're also going to get a lot of dead space on some of the pages, which is doubly annoying when it's your ink and paper going into printing these.

CONCLUSION: A more specialized selection than the first set, combined with a sub optimal set-up for home printing, and my recommendation for this set is even more lukewarm than for Cardstock Cowboys. Right now, this is as good as it gets for Deadlands fans, but I would love to have newer sets that took advantage of the advances in technology. It wasn't a waste of money, but it wasn't my wisest purchase, either.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW: This is a printable PDF ($7.49) for figure flats covering most of the major Deadlands needs: Gunslingers, Texas Rangers, Men in Black Dusters, Blessed, Hucksters, Natives of all stripes, shysters, bandits, desperadoes, cultists, most of the previous also on horseback, walkin' dead, Hangin' Judges, wendigos, devil bats, Los Diablos, Mojave Rattlers and even Maze Dragons.

WHAT WORKS: This'll cover most of your Deadlands stand-ups needs. One of the biggest pains we've had is one PC that is a Native who has been Deputized...we managed to find a standup that did a pretty decent impression of him as well. It's cool getting different varieties of the same archetypes. Especially so I don't have to resort to, say, using Necessary Evil figure flats in a Deadlands game. You get 16 PAGES of printable flats, of various sizes as needed (the Prairie Ticks are tiny...the Maze Dragons are massive).

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: This was originally a print product, and the first page has a large trade dress/sidebar that you can't work around if you want to print that first page off. A lot of the art is good, but a bit too small, especially with the color, and it loses something. I've seen smaller images on printable figures that were just line art that printed better because of it. No Harrowed.

CONCLUSION: A really good purchase for a Deadlands fan that uses minis but needs something cheap and easy to fill up his battlefields (i.e. me). I would love a more fully featured product with clearer art and customized printing (like being able to select the figures you want to print off, instead of printing off three separate pages to get to the three figures my players were using, as I had to). I probably would have LOVED this in print, but working with a cheap printer, it is a less than optimal product...still a good purchase, just not a GREAT one.

WHAT WORKS: The art is gorgeous. The "Heroes as Monsters" bit hasn't been overdone in Savage Worlds, and Accursed sets the standard pretty high in that regard. The level of detail in each Witchbreed is very cool and very evocative, and the Witchmark rules, providing reasons to both embrace and reject power, are great as well.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Some of the Accursed seemed to get the shorter end of the stick than the others, with Mummies having fewer cool bits to play around with. This is essentially a three book purchase, rather than the two book purchase that most Savage Settings are. Savage Tales to go along with the Plot Point Campaign would have been welcome. The editing in my PDF was still pretty rough, but it was updated after I downloaded it and I just caught that as I was finishing this review.

CONCLUSION: I was provided a preview copy of the Playtest rules and almost immediately made a pledge on the Kickstarter. I like Accursed enough that I put my money where my mouth is, I'll be getting a print copy and I may even spring for both poker decks. People who believe that Savage Worlds should always be as minimalist as possible aren't going to like the extra bits of crunch added to Accursed, but I personally think it's one of the coolest settings I've seen, and it will hit my table after the print version arrives, if not before. Melior Via made the game I've always wanted to play.

WHAT WORKS: A fun, light RPG-ish game that could well appeal to non gamers who are open to a little roleplaying. Price point isn't bad and the game knows it's not a deep RPG, avoiding complicated subsystems and instead settling for a quick competitive/cooperative experience. I am utterly in love with that cover.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: The game is built with the assumption of an ongoing campaign in mind, but I can't imagine ever really using it more than once or twice a year.

CONCLUSION: Dude, Run! seems like it would be a good deal of fun in the right setting. I could see busting it out annually around Halloween as a much lighter alternative to other horror games like Slasher Film, especially if you have a curious non-gamer or two willing to sit in.